Tunnel ˈtʌnl Underground Noun Railway/Railroad Channel Entrance/Walls/Ceiling Digging

• a railway/railroad tunnel
• the channel tunnel
• the tunnel entrance/walls/ceiling
• they have been digging underground tunnels in the mountains since the 1960s.

tunnel

1. a passage built underground, for example to allow a road or railway to go through a hill, under a river, etc.
• SEE ALSO wind tunnel
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/wind-tunnel
• a railway/railroad tunnel
• the Channel Tunnel
• the tunnel entrance/walls/ceiling
• They have been digging underground tunnels in the mountains since the 1960s.
• A gust of wind passed through the tunnel.

Extra Examples

• A service tunnel runs between the two buildings.
• The initial section of tunnel had to be dug by hand.
• The train disappeared into a tunnel.
• They've built a new tunnel through the mountain.
• We got lost in the maze of tunnels.
2. an underground passage made by an animal or natural processes
• The badger sett had twelve entrances to what must have been a labyrinth of tunnels.
• The tunnel opened out into a large cavern.
3. something that shows you are nearly at the end of a long and difficult time or situation
• For the first time since the start of his treatment, we can now see light at the end of the tunnel.

Word Origin

• late Middle English (in the senses ‘tunnel-shaped net’ and ‘flue of a chimney’): from Old French tonel, diminutive of tonne ‘cask’. The current noun senses date from the mid 18th cent.